The Max Level Hero Has Returned!

Once Willow regained her will to live, there was no longer any obstacle preventing Davey from activating his authority of sacrifice. While he didn’t know if the piece of her heart taken as the price had been returned to her, it was clear that she had opened up to them.

“You made the right choice. I won't ever let you regret it,” Davey promised her.

“I believe you.” The wall in her heart had clearly broken down. “So, what are you going to do?”

“Leave this place, and then call you from the outside.”

Even after three years, the main objective hadn't changed. The goal was to turn her heart around and make her accept resurrection. He had entered this place for that very reason.

Of course, it was true that he’d done a lot of other things in the process. Nonetheless, looking only at the objective, it was necessary then, and it’d be necessary going forward to keep her happy.

Willow quietly asked, “Then... are you leaving me here?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. But there’s something I want to ask you.”

She looked up at him silently and nodded slowly. “What is it?”

“The terrorist.”

“Hmm?”

“Why’d you kill him?”

She fell silent for a moment. “Ah... I don’t really remember...”

“I’m going to scold you if you keep that up,” he told her with a stern face.

“Wow... Look at you, changing your tune as soon as I change my mind.” She sounded annoyed and flared up, but Davey was firm.

“I love you, which means I have to scold you when you do something wrong.”

“You’ve never done that before,” she shot back.

“Ahem. Willow, are you talking back?”

“Ah, whatever!” Angry, she stomped her foot hard. “Maybe I’ll just go back on reviving!”

“Are you sure about that?”

In response, she pouted, sighed, and lowered her gaze. “Those bastards. No, that fuck.”

Davey was surprised to hear her curse like that.

“At first, it was just an impulse. I wanted to meet him and ask him why he recklessly and suicidally attacked you.”

It was clear that some of her memories and affection had returned.

Nonetheless, the subject she referred to, the feeling she had toward him, was clearly different from the beginning. She slowly began to recount the story of that time.

* * *

Extremist zealots often resorted to radical actions.

In reality, many religions existed on Earth. Among them, whether they were cults or not, there were many kinds of extremist people.

They had their own reasons, but Earth had changed a lot after several invasions. Particularly, after the existence of unproven gods and proven gods. The emergence of the Church of Neltarid and its validation shook many religions on Earth overwhelmingly.

Of course, the Church of Neltarid didn’t suppress or deny other religions. They just thought that others' deities might exist, and might not. They just let it slide with a shrug.

However, people’s hearts were different, and it was true that the influence of many religions had waned. The problem arose from how the extremists within their ranks thought.

- Our faith is being shaken because of the Church of Neltarid.

- We must eradicate the roots of evil!

Despite God Neltarid directly protecting Earth, this issue was polarizing among the extremists who somewhat acknowledged the existence.

- Whatever you do, don’t touch them.

- Their existence is harmful to us and our faith.

- Can you handle the fallout in a world with divine beings?

- We don’t fear death.

The person who had attempted a large-scale bombing in Alfland was one of the extremists who deeply hated the Church of Neltarid. He had tried to sacrifice many people to shake the relationship between Tionis, a supporter of the Church of Neltarid, and Earth.

Alas, bad luck had left his plot thwarted, and he was currently being held by the police for questioning.

Even if the laws of Korea were relatively lenient towards foreigners, his crime was the attempted murder of countless people.

Moreover, since it was a suicide bombing, something people in Korea almost never experienced, the investigation proceeded under heightened scrutiny.

The investigators were exhausted, and briefly stepped away because he wouldn't talk.

During that time, Willow went to find him.

With his head down, he smiled smugly. “Did another investigator come? I’m sorry, but I’m the sole—”

“I don’t care who ordered it, or what the process was.” It was a clear, youthful girl’s voice that didn’t belong in this place.

Startled, he lifted his head and saw a beautiful girl with black hair and white streaks scattered throughout.

The girl, who stood before him with an expressionless face, asked again, “Why did you do it?”

“Haaah. Does the Korean police force have to use little brats like you as officers? They must be really short on manpower.”

Super Ribbon’s general appearance was world-famous, but her hair color was completely different now. Furthermore, the terrorists were too occupied preparing for terror attacks to pay much attention to an individual like Super Ribbon. Because of that, the member didn't recognize Super Ribbon—or rather, Willow, who was inhabiting her body.

Hearing his snarky comment, Willow slowly approached, sat across from him at the interrogation table, and asked again, “Why’d you do it?”

“Do what?”

“What did my dad do to you guys?”

He was confused. “Dad?”

“Davey O’Rowane.”

The man pondered for a moment and then exclaimed, “Ah! You’re that devil’s spawn, aren’t you?”

Her eyes twitched for a moment, but she remained silent. She hadn't come to kill him. She knew that killing him here would cause trouble for Davey.

She had to continue her questioning. “Seriously. Why’d you do it?”

“Hah. Are you asking because you really don’t know?” He playfully lifted his cuffed hands. “If you uncuff me, I might tell you.”

“I don’t have much patience. Speak quickly.”

“Well, fine. For idiots who don’t understand the cause, teaching them a harsh lesson directly is one way to do it.”

He was silent for a moment, then opened his mouth. “As an apostle of the true God, I must incinerate the demon that’s corrupting the world, as well as everything related to it. That’s the reason.”

It was absurd. Frankly, there was no need for her to dwell on the thinking of extremists. Ultimately, he must’ve hated the Church of Neltarid for taking their place, seeking revenge.

Having nothing more to say, Willow stood up and stared at him.

He asked, “Should you even be here? Did you have permission?”

“That’s none of your business, is it?”

“If you're going to leave, why don’t you uncuff me? Who knows? If you join our great cause, maybe the true God will forgive a young lady like you.”

After a moment of thought, she slowly reached out and grabbed the chain portion of his handcuffs.

“Sure, sure. I'll uncuff you...”

Crack!!

However, things didn't go as he’d hoped.

She yanked the chain, causing him to lurch forward, and with her free hand, she punched him in the face.

Bang!!

A heavy sound rang out, and he tumbled over.

“Ughhh!”

“You should be grateful that I’m letting you live at all. If I kill you here, I won’t be able to face Eva.” She turned away, barely suppressing her anger and killing intent.

All she had to do was just go back home, and it’d be over.

“Ugh! My nose! A devil’s spawn is a devil’s spawn, all right,” he muttered in a taunting voice.

Willow immediately stopped and turned around. “If you call my dad a devil one more time, I don’t know what I’ll do to you.”

“Ha! In this world ruled by the great God, what else would you call a monster that dares to bring in a false god, twists the truth, and obscures the light?”

He smiled with a fanatical look, even as blood streamed down his face. “Yeah, those brats said the same thing.”

He chuckled and sarcastically added, “This country... Korea. It has such strict laws that bringing in explosives is really bothersome.”

She didn't have a response.

“But we managed to get our hands on that much explosives. Aren’t you curious how it happened?”

Saying that, he moved his head to look at his own pocket.

She stared at him blankly, then slowly walked over and pulled out a small packet of powder from his front pocket.

“What... is this?”

“What do you think it is?”

The eyes of Willow, who was silently looking at the powder, widened slightly.

“This smell... bones?”

“Ooh. The devil’s spawn catches on quickly.” He gave a sneer. “That’s right. Bones. We tried to bring in explosives, but it was too much of a hassle. So, that got us thinking. If we can’t bring it in from outside, we can just make it inside. And that's what we used.”

He grinned and continued to reveal the whole story.

They killed people, cremated them, finely ground the bones, and mixed them with special materials imported from Tionis. They then transformed and condensed it using the power of an Awakened before mixing it with gunpowder.

While human bones mixed with gunpowder alone weren’t a potent explosive, some materials from Tionis could make the structure of those two things extremely unstable.

“I remember my dad clearly telling me to treat those things as extremely dangerous substances.”

“We know it’s dangerous. That’s why we made it.”

Human bone dust, once refined with the power of an Awakened who possessed a special power, generated dozens of times the destructive force of typical explosives, making it a volatile and potent weapon.

Hearing all of that, a terrifying hypothesis formed in her mind. She trembled as she asked, “Who... Whose bones did you use?”

He just shrugged. “Who else? They were unforgivable sinners who dared to misinterpret the words of the great God and follow the words of a devil and a false god.” He tilted his head. “There are quite a few temples of the Neltarid Order in Korea. They have a fair number of believers, turns out.”

The implications left her speechless.

“We got it from there. The bones of children are particularly effective.”

“Are you... even human?” She was astonished at his brutality.

“Is that something I should be hearing from a devil’s spawn? I was being considerate! That way, when they died and reached the presence of the Great God, they could be forgiven for their sins.”

“What sin did those children commit?!” she cried frantically.

Seeing her rage slowly build, he replied, “Following and believing in the devil.”

“You psycho!”

“And continuing to believe in that devil and false god as they grew up. Again, I was being considerate, so that those sinners would stop sinning. Once they reach God, they’ll bow their heads.”

Pow!!

Willow kicked him right in the chest with a heavy grunt.

This crazy psychopath had just said that he caught and killed children who believed in the Church of Neltarid, crushed their bones, and made them into explosives. She wasn’t too sure about the crimes in Korea, but given the amount of explosives produced, the number of victims couldn't possibly have been small.

“I haven’t seen any news about that...”

“Of course not. Those who follow the devil don’t care about children from poor families, especially ones whose parents have never shown them love or affection.”

Existences that have never received love from their parents.

That phrase was enough to trigger her reverse scale, and she trembled in fury.

“Well, we were somewhat careful. We have quite a few accomplices in the world.” He spoke as if bragging, “It’s disgusting how sinners dare to call out the name of the devil without even thinking of asking for forgiveness from God.”

Feeling the time was right, he drove the final nail into the coffin. “Don’t forget, devil’s spawn! There are those who serve the Great God in the world. Even if I die now, I will just open the way again as a martyr. Someday, our comrades will tear the devil limb from limb and make him scream out of repentance.”

Killing intent surged in her trembling eyes.

“Then, we’ll catch everyone near the devil and use them as sacrifices to the one true God by burning them alive.”

“What did my father ever do to you?! He came to protect Earth! Do you feel no guilt after doing such things?!”

“Guilt? Yes, I feel guilt. Guilt that I could not turn more people into a handful of ashes as per the Great God’s revelation.”

Seeing his crazed smile, Willow ground her teeth. “Stop it.”

“There’s no mercy for the devil. The wrath of God will surely fall someday.”

“Don’t you have any regard for the preciousness of human life?”

“Sorry, but we’re different from those naive fools. If God wills it, we do anything. That’s who we are.”

She grit her teeth. “Your power won’t be enough to do anything to Dad.”

“Sorry, but our plan’s already underway. All we have to do is cleverly spread the full story of this terror incident, making it seem like the devil manipulated it from behind the scenes. No one can stop us! Sinners are easily swayed like that.”

He then said, as if making a declaration, “God... is with us.”

Once he finished his words, Willow snapped her finger. At the same time, the light of sanity returned to his eyes. It was as if he had been in a hallucination that whole time.

“What... What did I just say... You bitch! What did you do to me?!”

Instead of responding, she slowly stretched out a hand. Simultaneously, a black and white energy sword appeared in its grasp.

“Nothing. I just made your mind go a little out of control.”

“Haah. Are you going to kill me?”

“No. You can’t die until you reveal the location of your comrades. Only then will I let you die.”

“Kukukuku. Are you going to torture me? I’m sorry, but I...”

Crunch!!

“Ugh?!”

His entire body writhed. She stared at him silently and spoke coldly, “Let’s see if your mind’s as tough as your body.”

Someone who doesn't deserve to be treated as a living being should be treated accordingly. It was something she had learned from Davey.

That was her way of protecting Davey at the time.

The man’s mind was repeatedly suppressed and made to run wild under her manipulations. He eventually became utterly drained, spilling the information she wanted, mentally broken.

She intended to leave him behind for the police to deal with. However, when he kept hurling insults too vulgar to mention, even insulting her parents, her patience finally snapped.

She regained her composure belatedly, and tried her best to erase any trace that she had even been there, but she couldn’t erase the traces of the moved corpse.

* * *

“Then why’d you kill those ordinary people?”

It bothered Davey, because she had clearly learned it all from him.

“Ordinary people...” She pondered for a moment, averting her gaze.

“Willow,” Davey insisted.

“They insulted you! Those two awful people sexually harassed mom and insulted you.”

There was a saying that even the king was insulted behind closed doors.

For Willow, who was already emotionally worn out from taking out an extremist terrorist, she simply couldn’t let those words slide.

In the end, with her judgment clouded by intense impulse and the pain of gradually fading away, she had attacked them, only to be stopped by Davey.

“Willow.”

“Seeing you made me come to my senses. I know that killing them would be wrong, no matter what.”

The fact that she had been carrying that burden alone made him feel distressed.

“Am I in trouble? Are you going to scold me?”

He silently held her close and patted her back. “I should, but you don't need it right now. Next time, don't carry everything on your own like that. Pass all of it to me.”

“Dad...” she softly muttered.

“There’s no need for you to dirty your hands. But.”

He lightly flicked her on the head.

“Attacking ordinary people isn’t right. Even if they crossed a line, anyone can say insulting things.”

Of course, there was no reason for him or her to go to them and apologize.

They said certain things, so they had to bear the responsibility and the price for it as well.

“I’ll take care of the rest, so you just forget all about it and keep yourself safe.”

Willow remained silent in his arms.

* * *

After leaving the inner world, Davey activated the authority of sacrifice to quickly revive Willow, who was slowly fading away. It was the high-level authority of the Creator God.

The concept of resurrection was closer to re-creation in some aspects, so using it actually required extremely precise manipulation abilities.

However, what surprised him more was something else.

[Davey.]

The Goddess looked at him straight in the eye.

“Yes.”

[You cannot fully resurrect that child. It's impossible with your current abilities.]

He had only just received that power.

By paying the price, he had been able to save her from the abyss of annihilation. However, she wouldn’t be able to return to Super Ribbon’s inner self again.

Davey covered his forehead with one hand. “Then... what will happen?”

[Everything has its cause and effe...]

The text became garbled, and Goddess Freyja slammed her tablet on the floor.

However, the broken tablet didn't move, and she silently looked at it, then stared directly at him. She slowly opened her mouth. He heard her clear, sacred, and beautiful voice.

“That child, the one who has contained the divine power and the power of the laws for a long time. If you were to resurrect her with your incomplete abilities...”

Davey slightly parted his lips. He had the feeling that he might’ve misheard what she said.

“Excuse me. Goddess, I think I have a hearing problem. What did you just say...?”

* * *

A few days later, Davey, with a determined expression, activated the authority of sacrifice. His immense authority gathered into the remnant crystal of Willow.

As she had promised to wait, her ego began to rapidly restore. It was an otherworldly yet sacred power that could only be called miraculous.

The high-level authority of the Primordial God! It was unfolding in his hands.

Massive threads of light intertwined and permeated her remnant crystal, and it soon began to emit tremendous energy.

The ego born from a sword. Willow, who had contained the divine power that once belonged to Thanatos as well as the authority of Predatory Assimilation for too long, had already become an existence close to divinity, and so could not return to a sword.

It was only natural to expect a massive clash of power when she was revived.

Before long, the world began to tremble from the overwhelming authority, and the entire area shook violently.

The remnant crystal soon turned into a huge light, which then began to transform into the appearance of a girl in her mid-to-late teens. Her features were beautiful and utterly sacred. Her outward appearance hadn't changed, but her aura had transformed greatly.

She was probably the most bewildered person there.

Davey and Perserque silently watched her resurrection.

Soon, Willow, dressed in a flowing garment like a Celestial Maiden’s, slowly opened her eyes.

“Willow,” Davey softly called.

“Dad...?”

Perhaps not expecting to be resurrected in such a manner, she stared blankly up at him with wide eyes. “What... happened? What’s with this body?”

“Willow. Don’t be surprised, and listen carefully.”

Hearing the gravity in his voice, she nodded with a nervous expression. “W-What is it? You’re scaring me...”

“You won’t be inside Super Ribbon anymore. In fact, you can’t.”

“So then... Ah! Is it a new vessel, like helixium?”

“No. Your physical body is a brand new creation that doesn’t exist in this world.”

She tilted her head at his rather cryptic explanation. Then, the five-colored threads floating around her shimmered.

“Willow.”

“Yes.”

“Whew. How should I explain this... First of all, your true form is no longer a weapon. It’s this body.”

“This body is my true form? Wait... I don’t understand.”

“Born with divine power, and having become accustomed to that power over a long time, you can’t be resurrected as an ordinary being.”

“Then I am a...?”

“Yes, you are now.”

She had been born not as a mere living being, but as a goddess.

“What... Ahaha, Dad, what nonsense are you talking about...”

“Willow, the Goddess of Harmony. That is who you have become.”

A sacred being who harmonized all things, including outburst and suppression. It was the name bestowed upon her.

Davey, who created her, had also been dumbfounded at first. He couldn’t imagine how shocked she’d be.

The important thing was that Willow was a completely different kind of goddess than Thanatos or Neltarid.

However, what she did next made him unsure whether it was a natural change that occurred as a goddess awakened emotions, or something she intended.

Willow, confused as she watched him all silent, slowly moved her lips.

“Willow...?”

“Then, Dad...” she began.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

She smiled mischievously. “Am I going to be your boss?”